How to Declare AI Usage in Your Projects

Why Declare AI Usage?

LLM-generated code looks plausible but often contains subtle bugs, unchecked assumptions, and confident-sounding nonsense. When you ship AI-generated code without disclosure:

Reviewers waste time figuring out why code breaks
Maintainers inherit technical debt they didn’t sign up for
Trust erodes when others discover the truth later

The solution is being honest about when you use any tool, especially LLM’s.

Two Honest Paths

Path	Description	Badge Needed?
Vibe Code	LLM does most of the thinking; you’re the delivery mechanism	Yes
Personal Responsibility	You review every line, test it, own it	No

The litmus test: Can you explain your changes in a code review without first looking at the diff? If not, you’re vibe coding.

Use the Sladge Badge

Add this to your README to signal heavy LLM involvement:

Markdown:

[![AI Slop Inside](https://sladge.net/badge.svg)](https://sladge.net)

HTML:

<a href="https://sladge.net">
  <img src="https://sladge.net/badge.svg" alt="AI Slop Inside" />
</a>

Add a Disclaimer Section

Add to your README after the badge:

## AI Usage

This project was built with significant LLM assistance. Expect:

- Rough edges and incomplete error handling
- Code that may need review before production use
- Features implemented for demonstration, not durability

Contributions welcome to harden this code for real-world use.

Add an AI Policy File

Create AI_POLICY.md in your repo:

# AI Usage Policy

## This Project

- **Uses LLMs for**: [e.g., initial implementation, boilerplate, prototypes]
- **Human review**: [yes/no just be honest]
- **Production ready**: [yes/no]

## For Contributors

If submitting AI-assisted code:

1. Mark PRs with `[AI-assisted]` prefix
2. Document what you asked the LLM to do
3. Test thoroughly before submitting

The Point

If you let an LLM write your code and you didn’t verify it, you didn’t “use AI to be more productive.” You generated technical debt and passed the cleaning cost to someone else.

Transparency lets others decide whether to trust, review, or avoid your code; that’s respect.

sladge.net: The original inspiration
Ghostty AI Policy: Example enterprise approach

Crepi il lupo! 🐺